1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device and process for measuring the mutual orientation of a hollow cylinder and a cut edge assigned to it.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there has been a problem with measuring the mutual orientation of a hollow cylinder and its assigned cut edge, for example, in the checking of a cylinder of an internal combustion engine, especially in large-volume diesel engines. Typical dimensions of the cylinders of these engines are in the decimeter to meter range. High-precision acquisition of the relative position between the cylinder wall and the cut edge which is defined by the end surface of one such hollow cylinder is difficult and expensive for small wall thicknesses of the pertinent solid material.
The primary object of the invention is to devise a measurement process and a measurement device with which measurements of the aforementioned type can be taken in a very short time, and which can also be taken with a three-dimensional optional orientation of the hollow cylinder.
This object is achieved by the features of the described herein.
The invention is based on the finding that measurements of the aforementioned type are in principle angle measurements for which instead of mechanical measurement means better those based on electronics should be used.
In accordance with the invention, the noted measurement problem is solved by a high-precision optical gyroscope being used, preferably in the form of a so-called laser gyroscope with currently unsurpassed precision. It is recommended that a tri-axial gyroscope of this type be provided, although for simpler measurement tasks of this type, also bi-axially acting gyroscopes can be used.
The invention will be better understood and the above objects will be become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings.